To My Love
by shadowhunterwithasouffle
Summary: Ena and Rajaion are fated to be married. However, their time together is cut short, as Ena experiences Rajaion's death. FE9, Oneshot.


The sun sets around the walls of the reclaimed Castle Crimea. General Ike and his group stand around my slightly trembling figure, though they hardly seem to notice I'm here. I take one step forward. Another step. Each pressing of my feet upon the cold stone brings me one step closer to him, the one who I have longed to touch, to care for ever since I joined Daein just to be with him, my love.

Rajaion.

Finally the temptation pushes my feet forward, but I stop only meters from my fiancé when Ike calls out to me, fear in his voice.

"Ena, stay back! The king's mount is still alive!"

I wince at the word _mount_. Rajaion is so much more than just a piece in this war. He is funny, sweet, and all the qualities I'd wanted in the one I would marry. But as I look at him now, does he remember that he is even himself anymore? He's a beautiful black dragon, with wings as large as the sky, but in his eyes…. Is pain. Longing. And another emotion I cannot place. I open my mouth to respond to Ike, but I close it, my words unable to be spoken. I do not need to worry about anything else at this moment. He's here, after so long, and I will be with him, even in his dying moments.

I run toward him, pausing only inches from his warped form. The wind blows loose strands of my pink hair in front of my eyes, obscuring my vision of him. I push them away with my hands, trying hard not to cry out from the pain I feel of losing him.

Suddenly Rajaion lifts his head a tad, making a slight growling noise. His eyes lock onto mine, sending that feeling in him I hadn't reached before. Insanity. The drug that Daein's king had given to him had made his normally calm stature mad with rage. I blink back my tears for only a second, and his head thumps onto the stone again, his eyes clamped shut in agony. He growls threateningly. I do not step back.

"Stay back!" Ike calls out.

I do not move, even as Rajaion's head lifts again, this time with less effort. I do not avoid his now opened eyes, which communicates to me that he is prepared to clench my body in his teeth. I can only try to reach out to him, through the only way I know how. He expands his wings, jutting them out from his body. The ear splitting roar his gives signals my end-

"Rajaion," I whisper.

"Ena!" Ike shouts.

"No!" The princess, Elincia, has a hint of sobbing in her voice.

But I see what they do not. One of Rajaion's extended wings curves slightly, and a whimper-like rumble comes from his middle. _Come to me, _he seems to say. I, now without tremble, walk closer to him and slide into his outstretched, slightly bent wing, placing on hand on the crown of his head and another near his stomach. My knees are crouched on the grass sprouting from between the stone, and my head rests on one of his grayed horns. Both his wings fall and the one I am under nearly blankets my body, shielding me from the setting sun. Warmth spreads around me, emanating from Rajaion, deep inside him. I close my eyes and rub the scales on his head, calming him. He gives a satisfied moan. I could stay like this forever, me and him, our bodies next to each other.

"What's going on?" Ike's voice says, perplexed. "His mount is so calm…"

My grandfather's voice, Nasir's, answers him, in a calm, smooth melodic way. "Ike…let them be." I feel Rajaion shift slightly at Grandfather's words. I rub him again, and he stills, however I can feel his anxiety at hearing another member of the dragon tribe.

"Nasir, what's this all about?" Ike asks.

I sigh at Ike's slight impudence. As a beorc, I wouldn't expect him to know about the bond laguz can have together. Yet, Grandfather's response sums it up in a matter of words.

"That…is her mate. As death nears, he has regained his sanity."

"King Daein's mount is Ena's… mate?"

His voice rises on the word _mate_. He might see it as such an awkward word to use, but I feel it can describe the mutual connection I share with Rajaion…. Does he feel it too?

Soon I realize he won't be able to feel for much longer. My heart sinks in my chest, creating a weight that I am sure will never go away. I pull myself closer to his body, taking in his warmth. My eyes open, however, only a slit. I take in his dragon form for the last time, absorbing it with my eyes, my ears, and my soul. His heartbeat, his shimmering scales, his… his love. When I feel I am satisfied, my eyelids close again, and I wait for the inevitable. "…Rajaion…" I mumur, missing him already.

I feel him react to my voice. A rumble in his belly and a slight shift tells me he is doing the same I had done. Taking in the beauty of your love before he or she has to leave you. His head presses into the ground, lower than it had been. It is his time.

Suddenly the heron princess, Leanne, speaks, her soft, fairylike voice flowing out of her in the ancient tongue. Knowing the language myself, I hear her address her brother, Reyson. "Say, Brother…"

The heron prince replies calmly, "Leanne? What is it?"

"The dragon with the big wings… I wonder if he's a laguz?" Leanne says thoughtfully.

I grow slightly hopeful. Because of my love's laguz genes, would the herons be able to save him with their galdr…?

However, Reyson doubts his sister's discovery. "A laguz….No, it can't be. Ashnard's mount was a wyvern… Wasn't it?"

"I can't tell for sure but it feels that way."

In the heron prince's voice, I hear an optimism that flows into the fact that he is now speaking the old tongue. "If he is a laguz, the transform galdr may restore him to normalcy."

"Then let us sing." Leanne gives a slight squeal in delight.

However, my slight elation disappears when Ike intrudes again. "What are you doing?"

Reyson sighs, impatience in his voice. "Be patient, please," He says in the modern tongue. "There's something we want to try."

Ike only gives a childish "Huh?" and I stifle a laugh trying to escape my lips. Beorc and their impudence.

Grandfather's breathing picks up in my ears, and I can hear his order enter my mind. _Be still, grandchild. It will be alright._

I grip Rajaion's body harder, beginning to cry silently, fearful that if I let go he will be gone. After that, I try to be still and silent and I hear the herons shuffle around to get closer to Rajaion and myself. _Please, please, please,_ I ask mentally to whoever's listening. _Please let this work._

I hear Leanne's lilting soprano on the first verse of the galdr, conjoining with Reyson's strong tenor on the second. The song, short as it is, seems to calm my mate and myself as well. The song twists and turns on a slim variety of pitches and on the last note a white light flashes, and illuminates the sky. And Rajaion's giant dragon figure suddenly changes.

My eyes fly open once I feel the light has gone. I am still holding a body in my hands; however, it is not a dragon. Deep green-black long hair falls over the person's shoulders, wavy and tangled. His slightly tanned skin stands out against his tattered black robe. But the feature that I recognize most is that red mark, shaped with swirls and placed right above his closed eyes, above his dark eyebrows. And yet his name, though I know it, cannot make it past my lips. He takes a quick gasp and I feel his figure tremble.

"Reyson…that's…" Ike's voice is filled with awe and wonder for the first time since I've met him.

The heron replied smoothly, "Leanne told me that the dragon's true form had been warped. So we sang the galdr of rebirth…"

And to me, it seemed he has been reborn. When he opens his red eyes a slit, all I can see is peace, no pain, no insanity, and now I feel that I can talk again, even with my voice shaking and tears running down my cheeks.

"Ra…Rajai…on…"

He stirs and his eyes open a tiny bit more. "Er…aah…" The noise sounds like a child dragon trying to roar for the first time. When his face turns toward mine and our eyes lock, the longing in him is back. I also can feel he struggles to remember me. I clear my throat and try to speak clearer.

"…Rajaion? D-do you know who I am?"

His cold hand grips around my left arm for a moment, feeling me. He pulls away and smiles a bit. "…E…Ena?"

My tears flow off my cheeks and onto his cloak, this time with joy. He knows that it's me, he knows! "Yes…Yes! You recognize me!"

"You were made… to suffer…because of me…I'm sorry." His eyes close again and he grabs his chest that barely moves.

I don't believe I suffered. I went and joined the Daein army to get closer to him. I fought against the Greil Mercenaries as a General. And though I was almost killed by the Black Knight, did I suffer? No, I did this on my own accord. But I don't dare tell Rajaion this. And I can't by the way, because more tears are falling and my nose is running and I can't control how many times his name comes out of my mouth. "…Rajaion! Rajaion! Oh, Rajaion…" Suddenly I can sense he is slipping away from me. His body is becoming limper and his back grows cold.

"…Ena…Let's return to Goldoa. The two of us…together."

A small sob escapes my lips, and I know his request is impossible. I want to be with him in Goldoa, to laugh with him and talk with him as we had so may years before. And I know he wants it too. But I can hear his heart pumping slower and fainter. I don't have long. To satisfy him, and my heart, I whisper, "I will go anywhere, my love, as long as it is with you."

"Ena…from this day forward…Forever…" His chest rises one final time and his eyes lock mine in an effort to say goodbye. Slowly, he begins to reach out to touch me again, but his hand falls down just inches short of my arm. His eyes fade away to blankness and they close. He's gone.

I stare at his limp body for a second, in shock. I want him to come back. I want him to return to me. I want us to really go back to Goldoa together. Be we can't. Emotions overcome me and I bury my face in his chest, bawling. Why did this have to happen? If only this stupid war hadn't begun, he would still be here. If only Ashnard weren't born, he would be here. If only…

Grandfather places a hand on my back and pats me. But right now, no amount of comfort will heal my wounded heart. Rajaion and I, we were bonded. Bonded by our lives. And when he died, his soul took some of mine with him. "Ah, Rajaion…"

Ike interrupts my mourning by asking, "He was on of the dragon tribe?"

"That's right," Grandfather replies, his deep voice vibrating through his hand and into my shaking body. "He and Ena were engaged to be married… And then, he was driven mad by King Daein, his form warped."

I sob harder at this comment. Married. We were, weren't we? We were going to have little dragon children together in a house on the countryside and grow old together…

Ike replies, "…I see."

And it ends. It is silent, on this day the war ended. Only my crying can be heard. I am sure everyone is waiting to get on with their day, but I don't care. No one here will have to go home tonight and think, _My true love just died today. _

Except me.

I will get over this, eventually, but not now. Nasir is patting my back; my arms are around my dead fiancé, and I am crying into his unmoving chest. But now I know his request will be fulfilled. We will go back to Goldoa, and I will bury him. And I alone. So we can be together one last time.

A headstone will mark his burial place. It will be stone, such solid stone that it will never break. And the words I will engrave on it deeply affect him, me, and all the others who choose to read it.

_A Gravestone to My Love, Rajaion  
Brave and True in Life  
In Death, May He Rest in Peace._

_Fin_


End file.
